1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image editing apparatus, an image editing program, and an image editing method, and more specifically to an image editing apparatus, an image editing program, and an image editing method of joining images by applying a video effect during image switching to a portion in which a plurality of images are joined in time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a digital camera having the function of recording moving pictures has been introduced commercially, and digital data of moving pictures can be easily generated. Additionally, the function of editing moving pictures realizes the generation of new moving picture data by joining only necessary portions of plural pieces of generated moving picture data with unnecessary portions deleted by various types of commercially distributed application software. Therefore, an editing process can be easily performed on an image represented by digital data regardless of input sources.
Since, at a joint between scenes, the trailing portion of the previous scene does not continue along a time axis to the leading portion of the following scene, a sudden switch appears when a moving picture file of a scene is simply joined with a moving picture file of another scene. Therefore, a video effect such as smooth scene transitions, etc. is frequently used as an editing function.
A video effect such as smooth scene transitions, etc. is to joint scenes with smooth transitions at a switch of scenes by, for example, crossfading, that is, overlapping for several seconds the previous and following scenes such that the previous scene can fade out while the following scene are fading in. Furthermore, there is an effect of producing images more effectively than a simple joining of images in time. Thus, there are various video effects using more than tens of basic transition patterns.
Conventionally, when the above-mentioned transitions are used, an editor has to set what type of transition is to be applied to each joint between scenes when an image editing process is performed. Therefore, although it is possible to have a representation effect of transitions, an editor has to perform laborious operations in the editing process.
Additionally, a conventional image processing system is configured by an automatic recording system unit for outputting a moving picture file obtained by detecting a subject, capturing the detected subject, and then coding the captured subject while generating the information for associating the subject with the moving picture file, and an automatic editing system unit for extracting moving picture files depending on management information, joining a plurality of extracted moving picture files, and generating a joined moving-picture file. In this image processing system, new moving picture data can be autonomously generated with consistency on a specific subject recorded by plural pieces of moving picture data (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-215434).
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-215434 discloses that new moving picture data is autonomously generated with consistency on a specific subject recorded by plural pieces of moving picture data, and plural pieces of moving picture data are joined. This aims at automatically selecting image data to be joined, and does not describe any improvement for joining images. Therefore, when moving pictures are edited, the editor has to set which type of transition is to be used on each joint between scenes, thereby requiring laborious operations in the editing process.
Further more, a conventional image processing system can include a computation device for computing the similarity between a plurality of image frames of moving picture data, a determination device for determining a change point between scenes based on the similarity computed by the computation device, and a moving picture device for automatically editing and generating digested moving pictures of moving picture data by merging frames for a specified time period in the scenes segmented at a change point between scenes. According to the image processing system, desired contents of moving pictures can be precisely confirmed within a short time (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-235637).
Patent Application Publication No. 2000-235637 discloses automatic editing and automatically generating high-quality digested moving pictures. However, the digested moving pictures can be stored, although data area sizes of a header, an FAT, etc. of moving picture data is restricted. Therefore, an editor has to determine the use of transitions on a joint between moving pictures.